THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



519 



shade them at first by means of a 

 board laid on bricks over tiiem. This 

 all seems like a great deal of trouble, 

 but after you get a start you can lU'o- 

 pagate more easily from the roots as 

 above directed. Carefully save all 

 your seed, and scatter it in all waste 

 places, especially among trees if the 

 shade be not too dense. Enough will 

 grow and ripen— seed that will fall 

 iind come up thickly the next year, 

 when you can set the plants out or let 

 them grow where they are ; when 

 once started, they will care for them- 

 selves. I have briefly told you iny 

 plan of cultivation, or ratlier, propa- 

 gation, for it will need no cultivation 

 after the first year. 



I will speak briefly of its qualities : 

 It is a weed, but not pernicious. It 

 began blooming here the lirst week in 

 July, and for profusion of bloom I 

 never saw anything like it. I have 

 seen hundreds of bees on it, when not 

 one was to be seen on the clover. It 

 secretes honey constantly in wet or 

 dry weather, and in such abundance 

 that I have sliaken it from tlie flower 

 in drops. The rain does not affect it. 

 as tlie flower hangs down, which is 

 not tl)e case with the spider plant. I 

 Jiave even found bees on it when it 

 was raining too hard to be out-doors. 

 In short, I consider it the very best 

 honey plant grown, and do not mean 

 to stop short of 10 acres of it. I shall 

 not sow it on valuable ground, but 

 think it will well pay to clear and 

 trim up an acre of timber land each 

 spring, and sow it, and. besides, it 

 helps tlie r.ppearance of things. I 

 liope to liear from otliers on the sub- 

 ject of pl.iiiting for honey, especially 

 llgwort. 



For the American Bee JoumoL 



The Honey Harvest. 



Vr. S. HAKT. 



didly, but I understand that away 

 from where the mangrove grows, 

 they have not done as well. The cab- 

 bage palmetto is now in bloom, so 

 that the bees of the interior that have 

 not already had a good harvest will 

 have a chance to make a paying crop 

 yet. 

 New Smyrna, Fla., July 28, 1882. 



To help the editor to form an opinion 

 of this year's crop of the United 

 States, as soon as possible, I will say 

 we had tlie poorest spring for bees 

 within the memory of the oldest in- 

 habitants, as a long continued drouth 

 prevented all swarming, and in many 

 cases so reduced the honey in the 

 hives that feeding was necessary. In 

 May, however, the dry spell " let up," 

 and since then tlie bees have been 

 doing well. Old ocean itself must 

 lower several feet before our man- 

 grove feels the effect of dry weather. 

 Bees have been swarming for some 

 ■weeks past, and I for one liave lost 

 quite a number of rousing swarms 

 that would have largely increased my 

 honey report, if retained. It is a new 

 experience with me to liave them 

 come out and go to the woods, but my 

 assistant was called away by the sick- 

 ness of his wife, and I was left at the 

 busy season without skilled help, and 

 three small orange groves to see to 

 besides my Ijees. I have, however, 

 from 65 colonies on May 1st, taken 

 about 6.800 lbs of honey, and expect to 

 make it over 11,000 by the lOtli of Au- 

 gust. There is, probably. 2,'300 lbs 

 now in the hives ready for extracting. 

 My neighbors' bees are doing spleii- 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Common Sense Bee Hive. 



G. V,'. DEMAREE. 



Mr. Warran Clayton, a gentleman 

 formerly residing at this place, but 

 now a resident of Georgetown, Scott 

 County, Ky., being on a visit to his 

 motlier, wtio lives near neighbor to us, 

 has just handed me the enclosed cir- 

 cular. He informs me that a certain 

 party is working up this "patent hive" 

 in Seott County, and that the people 

 are going "wild over it." I regret to 

 see this delusion on the part of so in- 

 telligent a people as I know the people 

 of Scott County to be. Kentucky is 

 destined to be one of the great honey- 

 producing States. Her medium cli- 

 mate, neither too cold nor too hot, her 

 rapid conversion into a great stock- 

 breeding and grazing State, her moun- 

 tains, sivers, creeks and brooks, her 

 wonderful virgin forests covering her 

 mountains and hills, and skirting her 

 rivers and streams, abundantly justify 

 the prediction. 



The working up of delusive "patent 

 hives" is not to the best interest of bee 

 culture. The exaggerations indulged 

 in by the venders of "common sense" 

 or rather "common nonsense" hives, 

 is sure to result in disappointment 

 and disgust on the part of those who 

 for the want of information suffer 

 themselves to be imposed upon by 

 designing sharps. Tlie I5ee Journal 

 is the acknowledged exponent of 

 American Apiculture, hence its opin- 

 ions coming from the pen of its widely 

 known Editor, is of more weiglit than 

 if coming from any private source. I 

 would Ije pleased if the Editor would 

 discuss tlie essential feature of the 

 movable frame hive system-showing 

 that all the appliances of modern bee- 

 keeping can be attached and accom- 

 modated to any of the standard frame 

 hives. That the system of honey-pro- 

 ducing— "side" and "top" storing- 

 may be followed while using any of 

 tlie movable frame hives. 



Ciiristiansbuig, Ky. 



[We have never seen one of the 

 "common sense hives," but would 

 judge from the descriptive cut on the 

 circular kindly sent us by Mr. Dem- 

 aree, that it is virtually the Mitchell 

 hive, with hinges at one side of the 

 bottom, and a sliding cover. With 

 these exceptions, its counterparts have 

 long been in use in the Buckeye hive, 

 Mitchell hive, lung-idea hive, and 

 various others of the one-story hives, 

 where division-boards or followers are 

 used for contracting the brood cham- 

 ber. W§ see no features or benefits 



to be derived from its use that cannot 

 be obtained from any of the non- 

 patented movable frame hives, while 

 there are two serious' objections to its 

 use — first of which is the restriction 

 upon its general use, in the form of a 

 patent right, and the next objection is 

 the slidingcover. We cannot imagine 

 how this latter feature can be made 

 anything but objectionable. 



We do not object to patents on arti- 

 cles wliich liave commendable features 

 about them— when the principle is new 

 or a philosophical or mechanical prin- 

 ciple applied to machinery or imple- 

 ments, making real, radical improve- 

 ments ; but the .adoption of an old, or, 

 as is often the case, obsolete principle, 

 with a slight divergence from the 

 original, and the issuance of a patent 

 deed to dignify it as an improvement, 

 or as an indorsement of its originality, 

 is to that extent legalizing a fraud, 

 and should not be countenanced. The 

 circular devotes about half a page to 

 "reasons why this hive is the best in 

 use," but fails to describe the particu- 

 lar features wliich make it such. We 

 would advise our friends in Kentucky 

 to "severely let it alone," as also all 

 other hives which have no real merit 

 on wliich to base a patent, but which 

 are hampered with one to prevent 

 their coining into general use. What 

 we want in America is not more 

 patents on bee hives, but more una- 

 nimity in the use of a standard hive, 

 simple in construction and free for all 

 to manufacture and use. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Increase of Colonies. 



A. .J. NORRIS. 



After reading Prof. Cook's valuable 

 hints on increase of colonies, on page 

 474 of the Bee Journal, I would 

 like to give my ideas on the same 

 subject. 



1st. By all means I prefer natural 

 swarms. 



2d. Keep the bees from swarming 

 as long as possible by giving plenty of 

 room for queen and bees; they will 

 give a nice lot of beautiful early honey 

 and a very large swarm by so keeping 

 them back. 



3d. \Vtien they do swarm, run the 

 first swarm in a nail keg or box, and 

 keep this until a second swarm issues ; 

 now have a hive ready with 10 frames 

 (if you use the Langstrath hive) of 

 foundation, or empty combs, and 48 

 sections filled with foundation ; go to 

 tlie hive where the second swarm has 

 issued and take one comb of larvte and 

 exchange with one frame in the new 

 hive. This will keep the queen in lier 

 proper place. Put the new hive wliere 

 the keg or box containing the lirst 

 swarm stood, and shake them out of 



